I'd like to say I've been busy but that would depend on one's definition of busy. February has been a busy month for me though. My birthday was on the 12Th, my youngest daughter and the youngest turned 16 on the 21st and rounding out the month is my second oldest daughter whose birthday is the 26Th.

Less not forget Black History Month, Valentine's Day and my license plates expire this month. Where I live there is such a thing of emissions testing and a safety inspection one's car has to go through before renewing plates. It passed the emissions but nothing's perfect, it had to fail somewhere. I need to repair the sway bar and replace a broken turn signal lens before it passes. The light works but they want the lens replaced, oh well.

Now in the midst of working 24 BP's (auditing mystery shops) as an independent contractor, something I do to feed my yarn fettish, I have found time to create. I've been holding onto this skirt pattern for over two years now and I finally got around to it this month. Never could decide on what color it would look good in and a color I would enjoy working with.

How did I find the time to work it, I decided to get my hair braided and felt like since I had to sit still for hours, couldn't watch TV or play on the internet, my head would be held at just the right angles for knitting. I think this red did it some justice. Something I wish I had thought about sooner, perfect for Valentine's Day as a gift and after all February is also Women's Heart Health Month.

We always set aside a month and or a day for celebrating or creating an awareness. Ladies every month is our month, heart health, breast cancer and any other health issues. SO ladies stay on top of your health, preventive and maintenance.

Tell me what you think of my new creation. I still crochet but I love the look of knitting. It takes much longer, it took two days to get my hair braided and the rest of the week to complete the skirt. I'm happy with the results and plan on doing more of them.

Talk to you later.

Learning To Knit II

Yep, still at it. I decided if this was going to be a pleasurable learning experience, I needed to spread my wings, try something other than knit 1, purl 2. Let's get busy, let's try our hand on something that challenges the hands and the brain and boy was this a challenge, it was also fun.

I thought it was time to learn a little more about knitting, I've always been intrigued with cables. So this being my first practice piece and learning to use a cable needle this is what I came up with. The above is a picture of my cabling lying flat and below you'll see I really had fun, I decided to make a headband or as some call it, an ear warmer.

Now for the real fun, take a gander at what I came up with when the juices started flowing, I didn't have a clue at what the turn out would be, but I'm pleased.

SHOULDER WRAP

Now watch how these pieces takes off, I really had fun with these pictures

NECK WARMER
and EAR WARMER

I was so impressed with the early skill of mastering cables, I've started another set. It will post next week but as for now I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Negatives Into Positives

Now that I have explained the title of my page, I think it’s time to get down to business. Being virtually new to this blog thing, I’ve found that it does get easier the more you do it. It can even be fun.

I spend a lot of time online when I’m not crocheting or watching old movies, re-runs of some of favorite family sitcoms hoping for a hint of inspiration. Sometimes I find so much inspiration, I get lost, as I would venture to think most creative minds do. I’m constantly asking what do I do next or now. What colors do I feel the need to work with or what pattern turns me on.

Crochet has come a long ways since its meager beginnings. We can now imitate knit and confuse the public; I like that…even though I always wanted to learn to knit. This year I accomplished that goal. My car was stolen; I was going crazy, wondering what am I going to do now. I wasn’t prepared for a car note and all the other things that come along with it. I wondered what kind of person would come into one’s driveway and take what didn’t belong to them without a single thought of how this would affect the owners. Sure, I left the keys in ignition, sure the motor was running, it’s cold outside and I was sure I had locked the door. Well, to get on with the story, I took that time, worry, and turned it into something positive. I learned to knit. Sure, it took 38 years, but I can now cast on and bind off. I knew it wasn’t hard, it was timing. It was time to learn.

We sometimes have a habit of wanting things, to happen when we want them to happen. I’ve found that the universe just does not work that way. Things happen for us when it’s time. We must learn to enjoy our place in life for the moment we are there, appreciate it all that it holds for us at that moment, so we may benefit more when we move on. There are lessons to learn everyday, in everything we do. Until those lessons are learned, moving on would be fruitless.
I, like most want to be a success. I wish that everything I touched would turn into gold, but I’ve come to a point in my life that I know it’s not as easy for some as it is others. We would like to skip some steps to get to where we want to be, but you can’t. You can’t skip steps until you know all the steps. Make sure that everyday what ever it is you do, you do it proudly and to the best of your ability. If it doesn’t work now doesn’t mean it won’t work at all.

Disappointments, failures are learning experiences. Use them wisely, keep pressing forward. You know what you left behind; take the past into the future as a torch to light the way. Never be afraid of pressing on, be afraid of being left behind. We are all bright shining stars in life, in someone else’s life, in our own eyes.

I haven’t become a Super Seller on Etsy so far, I’ve only been at it a year. My work hasn’t paid my bills yet, but it will. What I do is time consuming to say the least. I don’t let this bother me, I spend hours looking at other shops and stats and think, I can do that. Nothing is impossible, highly improbable, but not impossible.

By the way I got my car back about two weeks later, undamaged and about a half of a tank of gas in it. That was nice. I gave it away once; I don’t plan to do that again. You see, I learned something. I also knitted about 10 pairs of gloves during the time my car was missing. Something good can come out of something bad. Keep a positive attitude, always look for the good. Look hard enough with open eyes and heart, you will find it.

Talk to me, comment, or as usual ‘Communicate.’

Sherryl